My parent's first wine cellar had been out of commission since September of 2019, but we've finally got it up and running again. This cellar was completed in 2007 and while it turned out nice, it was more a a DIY cellar and as such was never insulated properly. To remedy the situation, we ripped the drywall off of the back of the cellar in the garage, added some extra studs, and sprayed everything with closed cell foam. We also replaced the uninsulated door with a custom insulated iron exterior door. You can see in the picture below the silver insulation that we originally used in conjunction with traditional pink fiberglass insulation, but the real culprit was the highest point of the cellar which was basically being exposed to hot air in the attic. The hot air mixing with the cold air in the cellar produced condensation which leaked mainly from the light fixture in the ceiling. I'm happy to report that the cellar has now been running for a few days with no issues. In other news, my wine cellar still sits uncompleted while the wine piles up in my living room. Hopefully I will be able to make some progress on it this weekend. Progress has however happened on several projects at my house. The bar shelves are installed and the lower cabinets and drink fridge are almost ready for the granite countertop. I've even started the massive exterior landscaping and outdoor living project. It should take at least 2 months, but I have a feeling that it will drag on longer than that.
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My corkscrew search consists of monitoring over a dozen websites ranging from the auction giant Ebay to the more obscure auction websites which will remain nameless. Scrolling through thousands of items can get monotonous, but as I'm searching, I scroll past an item that clearly isn't a corkscrew then I pause, scroll back and decide to take a closer look. After all, the search that I'm doing is simply for the term "corkscrew" and while the term "cork screw" can result in multiple results which don't equal a corkscrew, but rather a lot which consists of an old bottle with a cork and a drawer of screws and other miscellaneous items, this one must contain an actual corkscrew. Sure enough it did. Normally when someone sells a "lot" or group of items, the first picture gives you the overall picture of what you're bidding on. Unfortunately (or rather, fortunately for me), this seller didn't include a group picture, but instead made the main picture a closeup of a boomerang. I was the only bidder, so what did I win? In addition to the "corkscrew bycatch" as I like to call it, the corkscrew in the lot happened to be a somewhat rare carved alligator corkscrew. I could tell from the pictures that the Sterling end cap was partially missing and that the helix looked short, but for about $25 total it's not a bad deal and now I own a boomerang. Check back soon, more great corkscrews are in transit.
It's been a relatively slow start to my 2020 corkscrew collecting. No Ebay buys or auction finds thus far. It wasn't until I listed about a dozen corkscrews on Ebay a few weeks ago that I finally managed to acquire some new corkscrews. I received a message in a group chat with some fellow collectors asking about the group of corkscrews that I had listed. I explained that they were duplicates which led to the sharing of pictures of other duplicates in our collections. Something caught my eye and we quickly settled on a price. I even managed to purchase a piece that wasn't a duplicate. So what did I end up buying? First is a small celluloid red devil skull corkscrew. These corkscrews were sold as an accessory whose purpose was to make extra clear which bottles contained poison. The second is a Walker corkscrew with a carved boars tusk handle. The front of the handle depicts a dog's head poking out and the reverse side shows the back of the dog.
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James ZalaznikI'm constantly adding new corkscrews to my collection. Any new finds as well as articles which may be of interest to corkscrew collectors will be posted here. Archives
December 2024
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